Fully Funded PhD Studentships in Natural Sciences at Keele University

The Faculty of Natural Sciences at Keele University is pleased to announce up to 7 fully-funded PhD studentships for UK/EU students for start in September/October 2016, as well as opportunities for part-funded PhD studentships for suitable candidates.

Home to a diverse range of disciplines from Astrophysics to Psychology, the Faculty Natural Sciences brings together a community of over 150 internationally-leading researchers and 151 postgraduate research students. Performance in REF2014, the UK research excellence assessment exercise, was very strong across all submissions, with considerable world leading (4*) and internationally excellent (3*) research identified in each discipline within the Faculty. All of our postgraduate research students benefit from being part of this high intensity research environment.

Applications are invited from high quality prospective doctoral candidates in the areas of Astrophysics, Chemical Sciences, Computer Science, Geography, Geology and Environment, Life Sciences, Mathematics, and Psychology. We welcome candidates with a good fit to our research specialisms and the expertise of our academic staff. Candidates are expected to have a 1st class or 2.1 class undergraduate degree or a Distinction level MSc degree in a relevant subject (or equivalent in the case of candidates from other EU countries). A selection of topics of interests for each research area is provided below.

For further details on research in each of our Research Centres please visit here.

Students in the Faculty have an excellent record of successful completion of their PhDs, and benefit from a structured approach to research support, extending from a dedicated project supervisor and supervisory team to access to a wide variety of research and training opportunities at Faculty and University level. PhD students are an integral part of our research community and are encouraged to take part in a wide ranging seminar programme, and have access to University-wide opportunities through the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, dedicated to enhancing the cultural and academic environment of all students and staff through encouraging interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration across the university.

Funding

Each fully-funded studentship includes an annual tax-free stipend at RCUK rate plus tuition fees (currently £14,296 for stipend and £4,121 for fees). The funding is available for 3 years. Each studentship has an associated research expense budget (£2,000 – £3,000 per year, depending on the nature of the project, to cover project related consumables and conference travel).

Opportunities are also available for candidates from the UK/EU and overseas who can demonstrate that they can fully or partially self-fund. If you are interested in this route, please contact Professor Peter Andras at p.andras@keele.ac.uk for a discussion.

Closing Date

Closing date for applications is Friday 15 April 2016 FNSGS2016-07.

Full details and application procedures can be found on the website.

For the purpose of research proposal applicants should submit an outline of their research interests or of a particular research project that the applicant would like to work on (max. 2 pages).

Please send any questions by email to Lisa Cartlidge (l.j.cartlidge@keele.ac.uk) or Ann Billington (a.billington@keele.ac.uk).